SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTDue to distribution problems there may be a delay in delivery of some copies of Issue #3. Fear not they are on their to your local friendly comic book shop even as speak, although possibly some of them are parked outside a truck stop near Millwakee.

19.00: Klostersalen, panel: Point of view
Ben Aaronovitch, Linnéa Anglemark, Eva Holmquist, Flemming Rasch (mod), Johan Frick, Marcus Olausson How does the choice of point of view influence the reading and writing of a story? Why is a certain pov chosen? What effects are intended? What are the advantages and disadvantages for the reader and writer? Are there any special pov:s in genre literature, e g to tell a story from the point of view of an alien, or when you have to invent and present an imagined world?

Sunday 9th August

11.00: Jupiter, Group discussion: Mixing your genres for fun and profit.13.00, Klostersalen: Animating locations.
Ben Aaronovitch, Kristina Hård, Jenny Milewski, Johan Jönsson (mod)
Many authors write about a place that they and perhaps also the readers know well, but although it is a common place it is given a “soul” or a specific personality. How do you as author give an ordinary place these properties?
Will some places work better than others - London is often used? Are there any places that are harder/impossible to animate? Do you have any examples of successful animations? Examples in addition to the participating authors: Neil Gaiman, Paul Cornell, Nene Ormes.

16.00, Klostersalen, panel: Three authors, three countries, three cultures.
Madeline Ashby, Ben Aaronovitch, Kristina Hård, Patrik Centerwall (mod) What is it like to be an author in Canada, UK and Sweden? How do the conditions differ, especially for writers of sf and fantasy? How is genre literature looked upon in the different countries? Is it becoming more or less appreciated, by the public and critics?

Monday, 27 July 2015

I wrote this in response to all the reviews, both positive and negative, that felt that Rivers of London (aka Midnight Riot) was a 'little bit too British'.

The British Song
(With apologies to Alanis Morisette)

I chose a young man to be my hero
He’s a stoical lad who doesn’t complain
It’s about making a joke of your own pain
It’s about being the one who has to know
And isn’t it quite British… don’t you think?

Chorus
It’s like expecting rain on a sunny day
It’s about taking joy in the things that you say
It’s knowing from the start that the joke’s on you
And who would’ve thought… it’s British

He can insult you without having to try
He’ll apologise too without knowing why.
He’ll go his whole damn life without starting a fight.
But if you push him too far, it’s true
You won’t find it so nice
And isn’t it so British… don’t you think?

Chorus

Well the world is more than what you used to
When you think everything’s the same as your own neighbourhood
And the world is much bigger place
And it doesn’t owe you an explanation for the things you
Don’t understand.

It’s doing the job without making a fuss
It’s being good friends without having to gush
It’s about leaving people alone even if they are quite odd
It’s about winning a race
And not thanking god.
And isn’t it quite British …don’t you think
A little too British…and, yeah, I really don’t think…

Monday, 20 July 2015

On Friday I went to Leominster Library, which despite looking on the outside like a young offender's institution turned out to be lovely and airy on the inside. Plus they provided me with an enormous spread including coffee and walnut cake.

Having consumed tremendous amount of sandwiches and cake it was fat and happy Ben that did his little Q&A with a small but friendly crowd.

Sunday

I went to YALC at Olympia where I did a panel with famous authors Melinda Salisbury, Amy Alward, Sally Green and Frances Hardinge.

We had a slightly larger turn out then in Leominster (all those top writers I think) but I couldn't help noticing that the larger the crowd the fewer the questions - curious eh?

After that it was my off to table too sign - to my surprise there was both a queue and my first ever sighting of Rivers of London cosplay - Lesley May and the Faceless Man I believe.

So after my signing session I went for a tour of the event with a friend and then home to feed the hungry word processor.

Why?Because a day spent outside Herefordshire is like a day without sunshine, a road without potholes and a meal without a detailed explanation of where all the food comes from.What Else?Hereford Libraries are having a book festival and I write books - do the maths!

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

The British Paperback edition of Foxglove Summer is officially released tommorrow and I would like to thank all the people that buy my books, all the people who do all the behind scenes stuff that actually gets the book produced and distributed and last but not least the booksellers who flog them.

Since we've seen the cover of Foxglove Summer quite alot here is a picture of everyone's favourite ghost hunting dog.

Once you have co-located yourself with your chosen shop inform a member of staff that you would like pre-order Rivers of London Issue #1 (published by Titan Comics). This is known as setting up a ‘pull list’ and is the best way to ensure that you get your hands on the soon to be much in demand(1) first issue of Rivers of London: Body Work(2).

Purchase a copy of Rivers of London

Then on the appointed day (the evening of July 15th 2015 or the following day) you can turn up, hand over some dosh and they will thrust the object of your desire into your hands.

Now different comic book shops will have different ways of setting up Pull Lists but the basics are much the same – here is a fumetti(3) by Keiron Gillen to run through them again.

Buying Digital
If you don't want to sully your pristine germ free hands with an actual physical comic then you can purchase a digital copy of Rivers of London Issue #1 from Comixology - here is the preview page for the UK and the preview page for the US.

Or they can be ordered from any shop in Germany that orders from Diamond Comic Distributors - this database here covers Germany as well as other countries.

(1) Hopefully.(2) If you, for some strange reason, feel the need to order other people’s comics go right ahead it’s a free country – I wont hold it against you.(3) Comics that use live action images rather than drawings.

Monday, 29 June 2015

I'm currently reading, as quick as I can, Jodi Taylor's Chronicle of St Mary's series because her publisher sent me a preview of book 6 and I'd never heard of them.

Whether I'll finish them in time to blurb (or not) the latest I don't know but I'm enjoying them so far.

Here is blurb for book 1....

Behind
the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of
historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they
'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining
the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power -
especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when
things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical
Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and
document - to try and find the answers to many of History's unanswered
questions...and not to die in the process.

But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And,
as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from eleventh-century London to World
War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great
Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to
follow in their wake ...

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Tom Robinson, DJ, poet, writer, broadcaster and, most importantly to me, singer and composer of such anthems as Sing if you're Glad to be Gay and the Winter of 79 has appeared on BBC Radio Four's A Good Read on Tuesday 9th of June. For his book he chose Rivers of London.

Monday, 8 June 2015

Quick let me qualify that before the other comic book writers come round my house and have words.

Writing comics is just as hard as any other form of literary endeavour but with one caveat - your only really talking to one person - the artist. You see when you're writing prose you've got to think about how every damn word will impact your entire readership. Every damn word! This means that if you're of a nervous disposition you can find yourselves agonising for hours about the placement of every comma.

You'd think film scripts would be better. After all a script is not aimed at the general audience - in many ways it is a technical document like a blueprint or a recipe it exists to provide a framework for other, hopefully talented, crafts people to build around. Alas a script has also to excite people with money or at least people who know people with money so you've always got to write with them in mind. This wouldn't be so bad if so many in the industry didn't combine ignorance with an innate sense of certainty(1).

But comic scripts are beautiful - you write them essentially for one person only(2) - the artist. Since they're a fellow professional you don't have to entice them with your prose or come up with six new ways to say the hero runs past the camera in an exciting fashion. In fact once you've established a working relationship you can use short hand, or offer the artist different approaches in the same document and, if your imagination has totally failed you, ask the artist to make something up.

In this way writing comics is easy.

In all the others ways, character, plot etc, it's just as hard as all the other ways to write.

(1) There's a famous case of a writer pitching the true story of how Elliot Ness's, famous for bringing down Capone, next case was the torso killer - generally considered to be America's 1st genuine serial killer. The movie executive rejected the pitch because Elliot Ness was clearly under copyright to Paramount (who'd made The Untouchables). The writers tried in vain to explain that as a real historical figure it was, in fact, impossible to copyright his name and his adventures. The movie executive was unmoved - Elliot Ness was a fictional character and under copyright and that was an end to it.

(2) Well alright there's your editor and your colourist and the letterer but in the first instance you're writing for the artist.

Thursday, 30 April 2015

I completely forgot to take a picture of the front so here is an image of the cake I was given instead.

This was a triumph.

I apologise for the fact that that as the month has worn on my blogs have become somewhat, shall we say, abbreviated. I'd also like to say that the many librarians, library assistants, DACSOs(1), archivists and people that wandered into the library and never left I met were all wonderfully welcoming and generous.

The whole thing started at Islington Central when I foolishly mooted the idea that I should visit every borough and it was fitting that this was the last audience...

That's actually Sophie Calder on the far left of the front row - she's a publicist for Orion Books and mostly to blame for all this.

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Redbridge came as a bit of a surprise because with a name like that I expected it to be up North - as in Yorkshire or Lancashire - and to have played a vital role in the industrial revolution and/or trade union history.

There was a huge coffee and walnut cake available and despite my best efforts to give it away I ended up eating half of it. V.Bad.

What it is, it turns out, is a leafy suburb or at least the bits I saw were. Once more the spiritual successors to Albert Speer had been let loose on a library as evinced by the Leni Riefenstahl windows you can see below.